HAWTHORN will travel to Perth for the third time this season – and second time in under a fortnight – for Thursday night's qualifying final against Fremantle, confident the experience in 2026 will help get the job done at Optus Stadium.

Outside of the COVID impacted season in 2020, the Hawks have only made three trips to Western Australia in the same season once previously, when they last won the premiership in 2015, returning to win a preliminary final against Fremantle after losing to West Coast at Subiaco two weeks earlier.

Hawthorn led the Dockers at half-time and three quarter-time in round nine this year before being beaten by 15 points amid Wharfie Time, before travelling west again in round 24 to smash the Eagles by ten goals in the rain to celebrate Jack Gunston’s 300th in style.

Mitchell spent wildcard weekend watching kids sport, Box Hill, other footy and in at the club on Sunday to plot a way to be the first side since Gold Coast in last year’s elimination final to beat Fremantle at home, where the Dockers are 12-0 in 2026.

"We'll go early, most of us will go today, a couple of guys will go tomorrow. There is a bit of flexibility with how we do it. So we feel like the extra day over there works quite well; we did that against the Eagles in the last round and felt like it gave us a pretty good preparation. So we're confident in our system, and the way that we operate our travels has worked pretty well," Mitchell said on Tuesday.

"Third game [for this season]. I'm glad we've played there; if you're going to play your first final in Perth, it's good that we've been there a couple of times this year and we've experienced a game against Freo. 

"We're about as well prepared as you can be to play in what's going to be a pretty hostile environment against what's been the best team in the competition all year."

Jack Ginnivan missed that trip due to a back concern but trained at the Kennedy Community Centre and looms as the only change, with Jack Dalton replacing him against West Coast and set to be squeezed out of the 23.

"[The week off for Ginnivan was] really beneficial. We'll see how he goes at training today. I suspect he'll be available. So from an injury point of view obviously [Conor] Nash is the major one that we've lost for the season, but pretty fit playing list. The medical staff has done a great job to give us great availability at this time of year."

Hawthorn will play multiple finals for the third straight season under Mitchell after reaching a semi-final in 2024 before progressing a week further in 2026. 

Mitchell said those five finals across the past two years have helped instil confidence into the group that individually and collectively they can handle the September stage.

"I think invariably between now and when the umpire throws it up for the first siren, I think at some point every one of us will have a bit of nerves and will have butterflies in the stomach and you're thinking, 'oh, wow, this is big'," he said.

"But we've worked really hard and so many people have worked so hard to get us to this point, so there's a feeling of joy and excitement about what we're doing, and then knowing that we need to execute close to our best to be able to get it done. But there's also an underlying confidence that we've been to this position or similar to it before. We're looking forward to the challenge."

Will Day has been waiting years for the opportunity to play in the month that matters most. He missed out in 2024 due to a complex collarbone injury, then last year the third bone stress issue in his navicular ended his season in August. 

Mitchell was confident the South Australian would make an impact when he recovered from the shoulder reconstruction he underwent in January and is thrilled with the form Day enter the finals in.

"When he got hurt at the end of last year, we knew that was going to be a significant time off. And then he hurt his shoulder at the start of this season, but we knew we'd get him back mid-year," Mitchell said.

"He's done exactly what we suspected he'd do. He's been a really important performer for us; you know he's not the panacea who's just going to fix every issue, but he is an important player for us who we know is a vital cog in the way that we want to play."

Hawthorn had almost a full list on the track on Tuesday, with Box Hill earning the weekend off and progressing to a preliminary final after beating Werribee in the VFL on Saturday.